FeralScan pest animal monitoring, mapping scores national award

AWARD WINNER: Invasive Animals CRC chief executive officer Andreas Glanznig with FeralScan program manager, Peter West, receiving the minister’s award for a Cleaner Environment in the field of Research and Science excellence at the Banksia Foundation 2016 Awards.

THE FeralScan community pest animal monitoring and mapping program has been recognised with one of Australia’s top environmental honours.

The cleaner environment in the field of research and science excellence award was announced during the 2016 Banksia Foundation Awards ceremony in Sydney last night.

Invasive Animals Cooperative Research Centre (IA CRC) chief executive officer Andreas Glanznig said FeralScan, a digital platform technology through purpose-built web and SmartPhone Apps, was an integral part of our PestSmart best practice management system and toolkit.

The FeralScan program is available on desktop, tablet and mobile devices via www.feralscan.org.au

NSW Department of Primary Industries (DPI) research officer and IA CRC FeralScan program manager Peter West, was humbled to receive the award on behalf of all the program partners, stakeholders and users.

“Thanks to the strong support from our stakeholders, communities and individuals all around Australia the FeralScan program has collated more than 65,000 new community records about pest animals, and has been used by over 25,000 Australians.

“Our program has brought over 160 local landholder and Landcare community groups online to work cooperatively to monitor, map and control pest populations.”

“The future for FeralScan is certainly bright, with the Program now equipped to monitor rabbit biocontrol agents present around Australia through its ‘report disease functionality’ and will be integrating new farmer alerting technology to assist in notifying farmers of nearby pest threats, enabling greater protection of agriculture and biodiversity from pest animals,” Mr West said.

AWARD WINNER: Invasive Animals CRC chief executive officer Andreas Glanznig with Feral Scan program manager, Peter West, receiving the Minister’s award for a Cleaner Environment in the field of Research and Science excellence, sponsored by the Australian Government Department of Environment and Energy at the Banksia Foundation 2016 Awards.

“FeralScan is a vital innovation that empowers communities to be part of the solution in pest animal management.

“One of the most powerful aspects of the program is that information recorded by the community is delivered directly into the hands of land managers, farmers, indigenous groups, and biosecurity stakeholders all over Australia, so that management can be tailored to their region at any given time,” Mr Day said.